Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Took a couple days and headed up to my brother/sil’s place this week – needed a bit of a get-away. Being in the north woods is always so peaceful and relaxing.

We got up there on a gorgeous 40+ degree day and the next day as well, felt like Spring, but woke up on Friday with snow…no telling what our weather is going to be these days. Not much of a Winter so it makes me wonder what our Spring will be like.

Thursday bright and sunny!

Friday…SNOW!

This is what I saw outside our bedroom window

Frame BuildingFor Two days we built backdrop frames for our space for the craft show this summer in Lititz, PA.Gene has a huge pole barn that’s heated so it was a perfect place to work in…we all got into it and it got done in no time.The frames have chicken wire and the wood will be stained or painted…most likely stained a nice rich Pine color.

The wood on the corner braces will stain the same as the frames so it won’t look like it does now…just different types of wood.We made 6 - 3’ x 4’ frames in all. and the holes in the sides are for attaching them together at the show so we can use one, two or 3 attached together depending on the setup we do. I plan to attach Tobacco Cloth panels draped to make it look for inviting.

Shopping Day

The next morning we headed out for a ride to Wisconsin Rapids to one of our favorite shops…COUNTRY FRECKLES.( http://mycolonialhome.blogspot.com/p/country-freckles.html )And as usual…it was fun! I wanted to purchase some Wool from Jonie. I found so much and didn’t want to stop but as it was in these piles I had $85 worth!!! This will be used on my Traditional Penny Rugs for the show.

But first you have to see Joni’s new baby…sorry I can’t remember her name but she’s an 8 week old purebred Cocker Spaniel. Her coloring is just beautiful and so shiny. There were several shoppers in there and we all had our turn at kissing and cuddling her. When Joni put her back in her bed behind the counter she zonked out immediately.

Love my Wools

Golds…the checked one on top is a lot darker than it’s showing up

The colors in this are deeper than they are showing up

More Cooking Things

While we were gone a package arrived – I had ordered a large sauce pan to go with the cooking set I bought last month.They never seem to include a LARGE sauce pan – one large enough for potatoes and things like that. A 3qt. is usually the largest and with my new set the 3qt. was large around and shallow. So I went online and found the one I wanted – it’s 4-1/2 qt. and called a ‘Saucier’ pan. Large enough to hold a mountain of potatoes! Oh, and good for popping corn too! I like that the bottom is slanted INWARD…the reason for this is for thick things like sauces, etc…easier to stir and get to it around the bottom edges vs the straight up sides of regular pans.

Special Gifts

The next day another package arrived…this time it was a delightful surprise from a ‘forum friend’. She sent it as a thank you for me getting some of her pictures posted on the forum as she was having some difficulty…I think I came out on the better end of this one.I received a darling picture of Two children dressed in period clothing looking into a chest that hold an American Flag.And a beautiful Blackened Tin candle holder. Both had a home immediately on the cabinet in the family roomTHANKS SO MUCH MARY LOU.

Waiting!

I’m anxiously awaiting an order from Teresa’s Primitive Treasures…she was offering this on her new site: http://www.primitivehandmadesmercantile.com/ But I missed out on it and e-mailed her to see if she had another one…she had a couple more too be finished and said I could have one. The body is painted fabric stuffed with straw and the fur is raw sheep’s wool…isn’t it a beauty!

I also updated my Amish Fiction tab as well (Go to the tab or click here: http://mycolonialhome.blogspot.com/p/amish-fiction.html )I added more books and an Amish glossary along with a few recipes I found in the books I have read. I apologize for the crappy look of the additions…I copied them and pasted the document into the post….it was going to take forever to type it all out. SOMEDAY I might take the time.At some point I will be updating the shopping tab too.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

This has been a busy month so far…I’ve done little in the house but with just the two of us it doesn’t get too bad so a little dusting/vacuuming here and there we’re good to go…and go we have!

Been to Janesville 3 times this month already – visiting my aunt, lunch with friends and a fish fry at a cousins house last night and then a church concert this early evening. Hoping this week keeps me home and warm and cozy!Nothing planned for Valentine’s dinner, going to be just another day here but that’s okay too.

Thursday we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant I’ve been wanting to try in Janesville and luck had it that Paula chose that place and it did not disappoint me…but I can’t be a real testament to Mexican food as I always and forever get a Chicken Chimichanga – I seem to be stuck in one mode at these restaurants. But I like them so why not!

After we had lunch we went back to their place for dessert – Paula has always had a special way of entertaining and this day was no different. She made a wonderful Chocolate Bread pudding and a Gingerbread – which was made from Martha Washington’s original recipe and goodness it was delicious.She served them up in little demitasse cups and mini dessert spoons and forks.This couple lives to restore homes…I’m not sure how many they have restored to date but so far this is my all time favorite…it’s an early 1800’s Cream City Brick – just gorgeous. AND IT’S FOR SALE!I took photos and will post a TAB at the top later this week when I have time to go through them. But for now here’s the exterior.See the arched windows…this used to be the Carriage house…but the doors were gone. Rick had windows made for the openings – isn’t it a beauty!

I was also experimenting with ‘Pennies’ for designs and made a pillow and I’m loving it – the bad thing is that I can’t find the fabric now to make more pillows – glad I have one for myself!!! It goes so well with one of my chairs don’t you think? And this is made from pure Wool, not the Wool Felt that I use for my other designs.

Jody over at Treasured Times Rubber Stamps and Scrapbooking http://www.treasuredt.blogspot.com/ is giving away a rubber stamp if you will post her blog on your site…I chose the sheep – it came yesterday and I can’t wait to use it.She has several to choose from on this page here: http://www.treasuredt.blogspot.com/p/galllery.htmlKind of difficult to see just what it is so I ‘borrowed’ the line art from her site.THANKS JODY…you were so quick with sending off my stamp!

A HUGE THANK YOU AND AN HONOR INDEED!…I want to thank ‘A Primitive Place Magazine and Country Journal’ for something wonderful they did for me. One of the writers, Dan Weaver, wrote an article on Penny Rugs and they used some of my designs as examples…how honored I was…THANK YOU AGAIN!

You know I’ve been seeing so many wonderful blogs with all their Valentines and hearts on them and I don’t have any…maybe just one or two but not nearly enough to do a post on them so I caught some of my RED’S throughout the house…many of my accents and accessories are red – so Red goes with Valentine’s Day I thought – and I added some olde tyme Valentines in my header - enjoy!

Something I can’t forget…last night at the Fish Fry there was a dessert to die for! Now I don’t like that phrase…I rarely use it so forgive me for using it here but it just came out.One of the guests brought MILKY WAY KRISPIES.Now mind you, I DO NOT LIKE RICE KRISPY TREATS…never have and never will…these are similar but ALL CHOCOLATE…oh my…you gotta try them.I brought 2 of them home and cut them in half again…they are sweet and rich so small pieces go a long way.Milky Way Krispie's8 Reg. size Milky Way Bars1 Cup Butter (2 sticks)6 Cups Rice Krispie’s1 12 oz. bag Chocolate Chips1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick)Melt 1 cup Butter and candy bars in panStir in Rice KrispiesPat into 9x13 pan…make sure it’s patted down solidMelt Chocolate Chips and 1 stick Butter – stir till melted and blendedImmediately spread over bars…cut into squares

And lastly…a customers Penny Rug all ready to ship. I had to back the runner so that meant I couldn’t leave a frayed edge so it has the blanket stitch all around the edges and it lays much nicer this way too. The colors are the customers choice…Black/Red/Mustard…I laid it out so many different ways and it just kept looking bright and also not very ‘coordinated’ so I decided to use the black as the base color and work with the other 2 colors for the other pennies…I really love how it turned out.

Before I forget…Lynne from Prim Doodles Blog was having a give away on her blog and I won this banner!You can find her blog here: http://primdoodles.blogspot.com/

Well that’s it…seems I have a lot to chat about tonight…but I will have to be working on orders this week so no time for posting on the blog – guess that’s why I packed it all in this one…I will get to you though and see what’s up in your world.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

I haven’t had a lot of computer time this past week and have missed visiting my friends..please know that I do get to you eventually…there are just so many of you that I love.I do want to thank everyone who visits me and leaves such sweet comments…I only wish we could get BLOG CONVENTION going so we could all meet one day…how fun would that be – but it would have to be in a location with lots of Prim shopping because there isn’t much around me! So who’s up for organizing!!!!

Oh…remember I said about the new ‘gadget’ for getting notice of new blog posts…well I unsubscribed because they come to my e-mail more than a day late notice…some even later than that …not sure why it takes so long to get notice. But it’s a great idea huh?

I WON HIS DRAWING FOR A YEARS SUBSCRIPTION OF ‘A PRIMITIVE PLACE COUNTRY JOURNAL AND MAGAZINE’….how fun is that…THANK YOU SO MUCH DAN AND THANK YOU ‘JEFF’ FOR DRAWING MY NAME…and funny thing is a couple years ago he drew my name for a gift Dan was giving away over at the Country Sampler forum…I will look forward to receiving my subscription…YEAHHHH.

GIFTS FOR ANGIE…I also have got my special gifts together for Angie…she sent me the quilt tops and extra surprises…I won’t show you what it is…I’ll let her do it and I do think she will like it – I’m pretty sure I got her style correct and chose some things she’ll love. So watch for it this next week Angie!!!

PENNY RUGS…Been busy working on new designs this week…one of the reasons I’ve been away from the computer.I think I fell in love with this the minute I started cutting it out. I call it “Ewe Following Me?”It measures a great 12 inches around and the sheep are pure felted wool…so puffyYou can see it also on the left sidebar and click on it to go to the site.

WHAT’S FOR SUPPER…So this is Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow…well, needless to say I’m not rooting with all my heart for any particular team being my Packers BLEW IT!!!!But I did make a big pot of Bean with Ham soup and some Cranberry Walnut Bread…hope I can hold off till Sunday to eat it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE…Actually I probably can hold off eating this until tomorrow evening because this evening we are going to a ‘50’s Diner’ to celebrate our grandson Joe’s 12th birthday…he loves this restaurant so that’s were we’re all meeting.HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE (Feb. 2nd)

MORE PENNY RUGS…Oh something else I’m working on are Traditional Penny Rugs…still need to put a backing on it but I love the colors in it.

In the process of deciding what color combinations to use

Stitching in progress (need to trim the upper left penny…looks wonky!)

Finished

AMISH READING…Oh I had so much fun this week finding new Amish reading for my Kindle…I searched for ‘free Amish books on Kindle’ and some came up for free but there was a whole series…8 to be exact called “Amish Knitting Circle”…they were only .99 cents each! I bought them all…they are very short…only takes me less than an hour to read a book but they all flow into each other for one big story – basically each one is a chapter…I love them and quick reading.

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